What Would Teddy Do?

I think Teddy Roosevelt or FDR or JFK or even Regan would take a bold stand. I have been divining this silver bullet over the past 2 weeks. Unfortunately Iran has stolen my thunder so it will look like I am copying them. However, it is obvious Iran has some clever people on their side and they are making us look weak. The latest move is to show their strength during some war games.

I have been considering proposing the US and Allies have a war exercise or war games in Iraq in order to pull a JFK or Teddy and show our strength. We must tell the world that we are a friendly nation, if others ask for our help or appear in need we will help them, and those who treat their citizens with decency and fairness such as in a democracy, we will assist them and protect them to the best of our ability. We must also point out that we make mistakes and we try to go where we are wanted but sometimes conflicts arise. We want the world at peace and to feel safe. If others do not agree with our philosophy we do not care as long as they do not threaten world peace.

Many of our citizens would prefer that we become reclusive and protect what we have, but we are not selfish and we feel compelled to help others. That attitude keeps us in continual problems and that is the cross we bear.

If we are threatened we become angry and have been described as a sleeping giant. We need to demonstrate the power of that sleeping giant and do it in a dramatic way.

My proposal is to have a war games program in and around Iraq. While there we can clear out some intruders and try to bring peace to a troubled world. While living under Saddam this country has developed a system of self protection by demonstrating what is asked but concentrating on survival. We saw this when scientists admitted telling Saddam that they were developing advanced weapons and were on the verge of success and he kept supplying large sums of money which was used with survival as the goal. Dangerous promises in exchange for comfortable survival. Even Saddam reached his power as the head of a mob, he out tricked the trickiest of the country and murdered his way to power. Survival was not making Saddam unhappy, comfortable survival was pleasing Saddam and they learned their lessons well. Even when we liberated the country the citizens concentrated on survival and looted museums and palaces.

Today the country is filled with those who would bring back a regime that they can trick again for a more comfortable survival, tribes are fighting for personal power instead of sharing a free land with neighbors and now some tribes are fighting for independence and choosing to have their own country. Other countries are sending in terrorists to keep the country unstable, incite us to kill innocents and make us fight with each other in hopes we will do as we usually do and give up.

It is time to chastise them like a little boy and set some standards.
First: we need to have strength and courage and work together.
We must also illustrate to Iran and Syria that we have the might and power if really disturbed to bring them to an imposed peace. If they do not have the bomb we could attack selected bases and fight their army and navy. However, once they have the bomb we have no choice but to destroy them and all their innocent citizens with a bigger bomb delivered without warning before they can fire at our homeland. This is a tricky position aggravated by the greed of Russia and France and Syria and China and North Korea and Venezuela and Castro who want to sell them arms to help finance their own desires.
To see how Iran will become look at North Korea. They hold South Korea hostage by threatening them with rockets aimed in their direction at the moment we move against them. If we sneaked flights in and dropped the bomb on them it would destroy their innocent civilian population, rockets would be fired at South Korea and innocents there would be killed and then we would be concerned with retaliation of China and maybe Russia.

But, while we still have time we can demonstrate our strength and leave Iran and Syria wondering how serious we are.
According to several internet sites I estimate the size of our military at about 2 million active duty personnel. The range seems to be about 1.4 million active and 1.3 million reserves.
If we were to activate about half of our active military, a force of about 700,000 troops with their airplanes, ships and armaments and send them to Southern Iraq and have them sweep the country along the borders of Iran and Syria. Then we enfold down around Baghdad and while there locating intruders from Syria and Iran and clearing out weapons, including searching mosques and palaces. Our ships could disrupt but not block traffic to Iran and Syria.
We could invite other nations to bring in troops for training, the larger the force the better and it is a great place to train NATO and UN peacekeepers. We would all learn as we put fear in the hearts of our adversaries.
I am concerned that we could put in excess of 500,000 soldiers in the field, we need more and we need help from NATO and England.
We need congress to fund the effort quickly; we need the main stream press not to destroy the effort by criticizing it if it becomes an active program. Debate before and after but while in process it must be a concentrated effort of each and every one of us to show solid support that will tell these terrorist nations to “back off”. The giant is restless and we want to calm his fears.